Valley Stream students unite to prevent cyberbullying

National Honor Society members from the Valley Stream Central High School District facilitated anti-cyberbullying workshops for fourth-grade students throughout Valley Stream District 30. On March 23, students from Central High School visited Clear Stream Avenue, Forest Road and Shaw Avenue elementary schools to teach the younger students about how to be respectful digital citizens and talk about the signs of cyberbullying.

The program was part of the Inter-District Wellness Committee made up of representatives from each Valley Stream school district. Under the guidance of Central’s National Honor Society co-adviser Alisha Varian, the honor society members presented on what cyberbullying is and how it can make one feel, as fourth-graders answered questions. The elementary students also learned about the numerous social media platforms that bullies utilize, as well as how to be an upstander and how to report a bully.

“We’re here to teach kids how to be smart on social media before they become proactive in the online community,” said senior and National Honor Society secretary Alisha Victor.

The elementary students were divided into six groups and rotated as the high schoolers ran different activity stations to dive deeper into cyberbullying. Among the variety of activities, fourth-graders participated in role-playing scenarios on how to face a bully and created social media responses on Post-Its, on how they would react to a negative online situation. Through the lessons, fourth-graders learned how words can affect emotions.

“I liked that they gave us a model in the first group of how you can feel if someone says something hurtful to you or something positive,” said Clear Stream fourth-grader Chris Brockington.